They both liked
the excitement of the city, and the feeling that they were so near to
everything that was stirring in men's minds. The long stretch of
lonely sea-shore is all very well, very beautiful, and, maybe, very
instructive to many people; but to most persons half-an-hour's
rational conversation is much more profitable. Pauline was not a
particularly beautiful girl. Her hair was black, and, although there
was a great deal of it, it was coarse and untidy. Her complexion was
sallow--not as clear as it might be--and underneath the cheek-bones
there were slight depressions. She had grown up without an
attachment, so far as her father knew, and indeed so far as she knew.
She had one redeeming virtue--redeeming especially to Jean, who was
with her alone so much. She had an intellect, and it was one which
sought for constant expression; consequently she was never dull. If
she was dull, she was ill. She had none of that horrible mental
constriction which makes some English women so insupportably tedious.
The last thing she read, the last thing she thought, came out with
vivacity and force, and she did not need the stimulus of a great
excitement to reveal what was in her.
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